The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing pieces of flexible material from a length thereof. The invention was primarily developed for use with plastics material such as small-bore tubing supplied as relatively long or continuous lengths, typically from supply reels, from which predetermined length pieces are cut for subsequent use. It will be appreciated however that the invention is not intended to be restricted to such use and may, with advantage, be applied to materials other than plastics tubing, for example cable or wire.
Modern production techniques frequently call for a high rate of throughput for articles and commodities. This is particularly so for beverage packages such as cans or other containers for alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages where a filling line may be expected to run at a rate, for example, in excess of 500 containers per minute. In our development of beverage packages there is a requirement for a piece of plastics tube of predetermined length to be supplied and form a part of each package. The purpose of such tube is the subject of our co-pending Patent Application Number 92 23 519.1 in which the tube is fitted to a hollow plastics insert within an open-topped container to extend upwardly within the container so that when the container is charged with beverage containing gas in solution and sealed under pressure, subsequent opening of the container develops a pressure differential between pressure in the hollow insert and pressure in the head space of the container causing gas and/or liquid to be expelled from the insert through the upstanding tube for the development of froth in the head space. In the production of the aforementioned packages we have determined that the most economically viable means for providing the tubes for the beverage packages is for such tubes to be cut to length from a bulk supply of the tubing so that pieces of tube of predetermined length are available on demand for automatic handling to be applied to the beverage containers. There is a need however for an apparatus for, and a method of, providing pieces of flexible material, such as plastics tubes, from a length of such material which is relatively simple and efficient in operation and which is particularly suitable for providing such pieces at relatively high rates; it is an object of the present invention to satisfy this need.